Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women other than skin cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer. The American Cancer Society currently estimates that there are about 182,800 new cases of invasive breast cancer per year among women in the United States and 40,800 deaths per year from the disease. Prevention and early diagnosis of breast cancer are of foremost importance. Because early breast cancer does not produce symptoms, the American Cancer Society recommends a mammogram and a clinical breast examination every year for women over the age of 40.
Although not a desirable procedure, the invasive surgical extraction of palpable tumors or suspicious lesions (hereinafter “tumors”) becomes a necessity if a determination is made that a patient's tumor is potentially cancerous. During the surgery operation, it is highly desirable to remove the entire tumor from the patient, and not leave any part of it behind inside the patient. Accordingly, a section of tissue that the surgeon believes to completely surround the tumor is removed from the patient and then sent to a laboratory for further analysis. As used herein, the term “specimen” denotes the section of tissue removed by the surgeon, the term “tumor” refers to the actual tumor itself, and the term “surrounding tissue” refers to the portion of the specimen that surrounds the tumor.
Currently, there is a problem with prior art surgery techniques in tumor extraction. Because many tumors contain abnormal shapes such as small protruding spiculations, it sometimes happens that the surgeon does not capture a large enough specimen, causing some of the tumor to remain inside the patient. Unfortunately, the fact that the tumor was not completely removed is discovered later in the laboratory, well after the surgery has taken place and the patient is closed up. This is unfortunate for the patient because the cancer can spread further in the meantime. Also, a second painful and expensive extraction surgery will be required.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for allowing a surgeon to be immediately aware of whether the surrounding tissue of a specimen completely surrounds the tumor, prior to the time that the patient is closed up.